Sen. Lucio sells out rights of transgender constituents for $5 million

Just days after Sen. Eddie Lucio, Jr. voted in favor of senate bill 6, the bill’s republican sponsor, Sen. Lois Kolkhorst, gave Sen. Lucio $5 million in the senate budget for a project in his district, as reported by Houston Chronicle.

The $5 million are for a “Center for Urban Ecology at Quinta Mazatlan in the Rio Grande Valley,” according to Houston Chronicle.

SB 6 would criminalize transgender Texans from using public facilities that match their gender identity.

For the past weeks, Sen. Eddie Lucio, Jr. has been at the center of criticism for his support of SB 6. Hundreds of his constituents have called his offices expressing their disappointment in the senator, traveled to Austin to testify against the senate bill 6 twice this month, and protested outside of Pharr City Hall during a rally called “#956vsSB6.”

Sen. Lucio is the only democrat supporting SB 6. The Hidalgo Democratic Party unanimously passed a resolution on March 8 to urge him to stand against the bill.

The bill passed the senate on March 15 with a 21 to 10 vote.

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Author’s note: Just moments after we published this article, KURV pulled down the original article we cited where they reported this event. We have since updated to piece to cite a working link to the Houston Chronicle reporting the same story.